It All Starts with a Sense of Urgency
Laying the Groundwork for Change
Excerpted from
A Sense of Urgency
By
John P. Kotter
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1.
it all starts
with a sense of
urgency
We are much too complacent.
And we don’t even know it.
yes, urgency is relevant, but . . .
“A sense of urgency is important, of course,” he tells me.
“Complacency is a disaster these days. But complacency
is a relatively minor issue for us. Better execution of our
innovation initiative is our challenge.”
He’s a smart man, and his competitors do not understand the opportunities nearly as well as he does. Nor are
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a sense of urgency
they inclined to take new actions when profits are good, as
he is doing. But there is no question that his firm is not executing his very clever initiative well. Why? Look around
him and you find employees who think they innovate just
fine. They don’t tell the boss that, but that’s what they
honestly believe. You find people who think “the innovation thing” is the latest flavor-of-the-month, which will
come and go. So, quite rationally, they see no point in
wasting time on it. You find people making lists, writing
papers on innovation, to-ing and fro-ing, but it’s all driven
by anxiety and is largely focused on making sure a new
initiative does not hurt them. You find angry people who
feel the innovation program is being crammed down
their throats. They act, all right, and with energy, but to
covertly undermine the initiative. Our man doesn’t see any
of this clearly, not least because others around him don’t
either. Under these circumstances, execution is, and will
certainly remain, a great problem.
“Urgency is not the issue,” she tells me. “People know
we are in trouble and need to change. The economic evidence in our sector of health care is everywhere. We have
a burning platform. Our old complacency is, for all practical purposes, entirely gone. Communicating the new
strategy is now the big challenge.”
From where she sits, her views seem valid, and most
are. The good news: she has a growth strategy that could
make her enterprise highly successful. The bad news: the
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it all starts with a sense of urgency
complacency, which she thinks is gone, is alive and very
well. Why? Lazy or less-than-competent employees?
There are some people who will not win any talent contests, but that’s not her problem.
Two levels below this manager, employees are living in
a different world. Some of them are never exposed to the
flames coming from investment analysts or the blistering
comments coming from customers. They don’t live on a
burning platform but instead in a building that seems to
require no renovation, at least on their floor. The few people who do have smoke pouring into their offices are furious that somebody has started a fire. But instead of
demonstrating a real sense of urgency to solve the problem, starting today, they complain. “Yeah,” the angry accountant tells me, “we need major changes in marketing.
You wouldn’t believe what those people do!”
“I think we could do with a little less urgency,” he says,
almost defiantly. “We’re running so fast and long that
we are completely stressed out. We can’t take this much
longer.”
Go check, and you find people are running and they
are stressed out. But this man, and almost everyone else
around him, is mistaking the enormous amount of activity
as a sign of a real sense of urgency. It’s not. It’s just frenetic
activity, with people trying to cope with fifteen issues, few
of which are central to his organization’s success. All this
action is exhausting employees and actually killing true
3
a sense of urgency
and positive urgency. Who can feel absolutely determined
to deal now with the central issues facing an organization
after racing into nine meetings on nine different topics in
the space of one day?
“Within a month, we are going to have to lay off two
or three thousand people,” he tells me. “What’s really terrible,” he adds with great frustration, “is that if we had
acted a year ago, we probably wouldn’t be in this mess.”
Why did they not act a year ago? I ask. He’s a man of action, not reflection, so he struggles with the question. Finally: “With 20/20 hindsight,” he tells me, “I would say
complacency. And some arrogance.” And why was the
firm complacent and arrogant? “Too much success in the
past,” he says. “I would bet that’s it.”
It’s a good bet.
complacency and false urgency
We have a serious problem. It could grow more serious
in the future if we don’t act now. What many people
often see as the solution is not the solution. It can actually make matters worse. There is a real solution. You
can find it in use today. It can produce the achievements
we all want for organizations, nations, and ourselves.
The problem is complacency. We have all seen it. Yet
we underestimate its power and its prevalence. Highly
4
it all starts with a sense of urgency
destructive complacency is, in fact, all around us, including in places where people would deny it, deny it, and
deny it still more.
With complacency, no matter what people say, if you
look at what they do it is clear that they are mostly content
with the status quo. They pay insufficient attention to
wonderful new opportunities and frightening new hazards. They continue with what has been the norm in the
past, whether it’s short hours or long, suits or jeans, a focus
on products or systems or not much of anything. As an
outsider, you may correctly see that internal complacency
is dangerous, that past successes have created sluggishness
or arrogance, but complacent insiders—even very smart
people—just don’t have that perspective. They may admit
there are difficult challenges, but the challenges are over
there in that other person’s department. They think they
know what to do and they do it. In a world that moves
slowly and in which you have a strong position, this attitude certainly is a problem, but no more so than a dozen
other problems. In a fast-moving and changing world, a
sleepy or steadfast contentment with the status quo can
create disaster—literally, disaster.
Far too often, managers think they have found the solution to this problem when they see lots of energetic activity:
where people sometimes run from meeting to meeting,
preparing endless PowerPoint presentations; where people have agendas containing a long list of activities; where
5
a sense of urgency
people seem willing to abandon the status quo; where people seem to have a great sense of urgency. But more often
than not, this flurry of behavior is not driven by any underlying determination to move and win, now. It’s driven by
pressures that create anxiety and anger. The resulting
frantic activity is more distracting than useful. This is a
false sense of urgency that may be even more destructive
than complacency because it drains needed energy in activity and not productivity.
Since people mistake the running-around for a real
sense of urgency, they sometimes actually try to create it.
The frustrated boss screams “execute.” His employees
scramble: sprinting, meeting, task-forcing, e-mailing—
all of which create a howling wind of activity. But that’s
all it is, a howling wind or, worse yet, a tornado that destroys much and builds nothing.
The real solution to the complacency problem is a true
sense of urgency. This set of thoughts, feelings, and actions is never associated with an endless list of exhausting
activities. It has nothing to do with anxious running from
meeting to meeting. It’s not supported by an adrenalin
rush that cannot be sustained over time. True urgency focuses on critical issues, not agendas overstuffed with the
important and the trivial. True urgency is driven by a
deep determination to win, not anxiety about losing.
With an attitude of true urgency, you try to accomplish
something important each day, never leaving yourself
6
it all starts with a sense of urgency
with a heart-attack-producing task of running one thousand miles in the last week of the race.
In a turbulent era, when new competitors or political
problems might emerge at any time, when technology is
changing everything, both the business-as-usual behavior
associated with complacency and the running-in-circles
behavior associated with a false sense of urgency are increasingly dangerous. They are not only torpedoes that
will eventually sink ships, they are often stealth torpedoes,
and that makes them doubly dangerous.
In bold contrast, a true sense of urgency is becoming
immeasurably important. The results of my recent research on this point are exceptionally clear. Real urgency
is an essential asset that must be created, and re-created,
and it can be. I’ll show you how.
a true sense of urgency
The dictionary tells us that urgency means “of pressing
importance.” When people have a true sense of urgency,
they think that action on critical issues is needed now,
not eventually, not when it fits easily into a schedule. Now
means making real progress every single day. Critically
important means challenges that are central to success or
survival, winning or losing. A sense of urgency is not an
attitude that I must have the project team meeting today,
7
a sense of urgency
but that the meeting must accomplish something important today.
Urgent behavior is not driven by a belief that all is well
or that everything is a mess but, instead, that the world
contains great opportunities and great hazards. Even
more so, urgent action is not created by feelings of contentment, anxiety, frustration, or anger, but by a gut-level
determination to move, and win, now. These feelings quite
naturally lead to behavior in which people are alert and
proactive, in which they constantly scan the environment
around them, both inside and outside their organizations,
looking for information relevant to success and survival.
With complacency or false urgency, people look inward,
not out, and they miss what is essential for prosperity.
With a real sense of urgency, when people see an opportunity or a problem of significance to their organization, and others don’t, they quite naturally search for
effective ways to get the information to the right individual—and not when they meet him or her next month.
With a true sense of urgency, people want to come to
work each day ready to cooperate energetically and responsively with intelligent initiatives from others. And
they do. People want to find ways to launch smart initiatives. And they do. They don’t move at thirty-five miles
per hour when sixty-five is needed to win.
A real sense of urgency is a highly positive and highly
focused force. Because it naturally directs you to be truly
alert to what’s really happening, it rarely leads to a race to
8
it all starts with a sense of urgency
deal with the trivial, to pursue pet projects of minor significance to the larger organization, or to tackle important issues in uninformed, potentially dangerous ways.
It is often believed that people cannot maintain a high
sense of urgency over a prolonged period of time, without
burnout. Yet with all the alertness, initiative, and speed,
true urgency doesn’t produce dangerous levels of stress, at
least partially because it motivates people to relentlessly
look for ways to rid themselves of chores that add little
value to their organizations but clog their calendars and
slow down needed action. People who are determined to
move and win, now, simply do not waste time or add stress
by engaging in irrelevant or business-as-usual activities.
True urgency is not the product of historical successes
or current failures but the result of people, up and down
the hierarchy, who provide the leadership needed to create and re-create this increasingly important asset. These
sorts of people use a strategy that aims at the heart as well
as the mind. They use four identifiable sets of tactics. As
you will see shortly, we know what these people do, and
what many others could do.
A real sense of urgency is rare, much rarer than most
people seem to think. Yet it is invaluable in a world that
will not stand still. Complacency is pervasive, in part because it simply is not seen, even by many smart, experienced, and sophisticated people. A false sense of urgency
is pervasive and insidious because people mistake activity for productivity.
9
a sense of urgency
complacency, false urgency,
and true urgency
Complacency
A False Sense
of Urgency
A True Sense
of Urgency
More pervasive
than people
recognize,
insidious, and
often invisible
to insiders
Also pervasive,
insidious, and
often seen,
incorrectly, as
a true sense
of urgency
Rare and
immeasurably
important in a
rapidly changing
world
Roots
Successes: real,
or perceived
wins, usually
over a period
of time
Failures: recent
problems with
short-term
results or longstanding,
incremental
decline
Leadership:
people not only
at the top but up
and down the
hierarchy who
create true urgency and recreate it when
needed
People
Think
“I know what to
do, and I do it.”
“What a mess
this is.”
“Great
opportunities
and hazards are
everywhere.”
People
Feel
Content with
the status quo
(and sometimes
anxious of the
unknown)
Very anxious,
angry, and
frustrated
A powerful
desire to move,
and win, now
10
it all starts with a sense of urgency
Behavior
Complacency
A False Sense
of Urgency
A True Sense
of Urgency
Unchanging
activity: action
which ignores an
organization’s
new opportunities or hazards,
focuses inward,
does whatever
has been the
norm in the past
(many meetings
or no meetings,
9 to 5 or 8 to 6).
Frenetic activity:
meeting-meeting,
writing-writing,
going-going,
projectsprojects, with
task force after
task force and
PowerPoint to
the extreme—all
of which exhausts
and greatly
stresses people.
Urgent activity:
action which is
alert, fast
moving, focused
externally on the
important issues,
relentless, and
continuously
purging irrelevant activities to
provide time for
the important
and to prevent
burnout.
the consequences of little true
urgency in an era of change
We live in an age when change is accelerating. This observation, hardly new news, cannot be overemphasized.
The argument that change is always with us, or that
change is cyclical, misses the point entirely. Both may be
true over a millennium. But for now, and for the next
five or ten years, the rate of change will continue to go
up and up, with huge consequences for nearly everyone.
New technologies alone can affect all organizations,
even firms in older and mature industries. Globalization
11
a sense of urgency
can open markets that, to be exploited, demand new offices, factories, employees, and more. International political turbulence can upset the most carefully crafted plans.
A merger can produce a gigantic competitor overnight.
Countless statistics demonstrate these trends. Two of my
favorites: patents filed in the United States have gone
from 132,000 in 1986 to 211,000 in 1996 and on to 452,000
in 2006, showing both huge increases and an accelerating rate of growth. Total merger and acquisition activity
in the United States has gone from $173 billion in 1986
to $469 billion in 1996 to $1,484 billion in 2006, again
huge jumps and an increasing rate of increase.
External change must be seen to be acted upon. With
an insufficient sense of urgency, people don’t tend to look
hard enough or can’t seem to find the time to look hard
enough. Or they look and do not believe their eyes, or do
not wish to believe their eyes. Even if seen correctly, and
in time, external change demands internal change. More
processes need to be made more efficient. New work
methods and products must be created. Organizations
need to be reorganized to focus more on customers or
growth. With complacency or false urgency, none of these
changes happens fast enough, smart enough, or efficiently
enough. From years of study, I estimate that today more
than 70 percent of needed change either fails to be
launched, even though some people clearly see the need,
fails to be completed, even though some people exhaust
themselves trying, or finishes over budget, late, and with
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it all starts with a sense of urgency
initial aspirations unmet. A 70 percent failure rate is an
enormous drag on a company, a government, an economy,
or a society. Investors are obviously hurt, but the pain goes
in all directions: to employees, customers, our families.
We know it does not have to be this way. I have documented many cases where people have handled the challenges of a changing world remarkably well. In virtually
all these cases, people use a basic formula, a pattern with
eight steps that I have described at length in three of my
books: Leading Change, The Heart of Change, and Our
Iceberg Is Melting. Used correctly, this method can produce inspiring results. The first step in that formula involves creating and sustaining a sense of urgency that is
as high as possible, among as many people as possible.
Most organizations handle step 1 poorly. Many fail elsewhere too. Smart people put the wrong group in charge of
a new initiative. They don’t get the change vision entirely
right. They greatly undercommunicate to people who
need to buy in. They don’t eliminate enough obstacles
for those people trying to execute a change. They don’t
achieve enough short-term wins to give them credibility
and momentum. They let up before the job is done. They
don’t make the right moves to make a change stick. But
the very best available evidence, everything I have seen in
my work over the years, suggests that the number-one
problem they have is all about creating a sense of urgency—
and that’s the first step in a series of actions needed to succeed
in a changing world.
13
a sense of urgency
it all starts with urgency
1. A sense of urgency: Winners first make sure that
a sufficient number of people feel a true sense of
urgency to look for an organization’s critical opportunities and hazards now.
2. The guiding team: With a strong sense of urgency,
people quickly identify critical issues and form
teams that are strong enough, and that feel enough
commitment, to guide an ambitious change initiative, even though the team members may already be overworked or overcommitted.
3. Visions and strategies: Strong and highly committed teams orchestrate the effort to find smart visions and strategies for dealing with a key issue—
even when the best strategies are elusive.
4. Communication: High-urgency teams inherently
feel a need to relentlessly communicate the visions and strategies to relevant people to obtain
buy in and generate still more urgency in their
organizations.
5. Empowerment: Those with a true sense of urgency
empower others who are committed to making
any vision a reality by removing obstacles in their
paths—even if it’s very difficult to remove those
obstacles.
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it all starts with a sense of urgency
6. Short-term wins: High-urgency teams guide empowered people to achieve visible, unambiguous
short-term wins that silence critics and disarm
cynics.
7. Never letting up: After initial successes, groups
with a true sense of urgency refuse to let their
organizations slide back into a comfortable complacency. They expand the effort, working on
every phase of the challenge, and never let up
until a vision is a reality.
8. Making change stick: High-urgency organizations
feel compelled to find ways to make sure any
change sticks by institutionalizing it into the
structure, systems, and, most of all, culture.
a problem and its solution
A big reason that a true sense of urgency is rare is that it’s
not a natural state of affairs. It has to be created and recreated. In organizations that have survived for a significant period of time, complacency is more likely the
norm. Even in organizations that are clearly experiencing serious problems, devastating problems, business-asusual can survive. Or it can be replaced by hundreds of
15
a sense of urgency
anxiety-filled, unproductive activities that are mistaken
for a real sense of urgency. And in organizations that
handle episodic change well, with a big initiative every
five years or so, you can still find a poor capacity to deal
with continuous change because urgency tends to collapse
after a few successes. This last point is exceptionally important because we are moving from episodic to continuous change. With this shift, urgency will move from
being an important issue every few years to being a powerful asset all the time.
The urgency question is not limited to any particular
class of organization or group. Insufficient urgency, with
all of its consequences, can be found in winners and losers, businesses and governments. It can undermine a plant,
an office, or a whole country. Conversely, in all of these
situations, a high sense of urgency can help produce results, and a whole way of life, that we all desire.
For the past thirty-five years I have been studying what
people actually do to help their organizations perform
well, no matter how difficult the circumstances. My work
has led me to this topic and to this book. In the pages that
follow, you will find dozens of stories about urgency, complacency, and false urgency. I will describe a strategy and
four sets of tactics I have seen people use to create a strong
sense of urgency and an unexpectedly high level of performance—with benefits flowing to investors, employees,
national economies, and their own careers. A few of these
16
it all starts with a sense of urgency
methods are relatively obvious. A few are totally counterintuitive. Some seem to be virtually a secret.
The good news here—and there is good news—is
that a changing world offers not only many hazards but
wonderful opportunities. Such is the very nature of shifting contexts. To capitalize on the opportunities requires
any number of skills and resources. But it all begins with
a high enough sense of urgency among a large enough
group of people. Get that right and you are off to a great
start. Get that right and you can produce results that you
very much want, and the world very much needs.
17